If the drudgery of close lose after close loss in ACC play has done anything for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, maybe it’s left them unfazed by much.
Coming into Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday night against No. 4 Duke, the Jackets threw up their collective hands and just played — and played hard. They slapped a big body in Demarco Cox on Jahlil Okafor in the low block, were 8-for-11 from 3-point range and just absolutely hung around.
Duke looked up with 7:55 to play and led by 1 point, 57-56, in what was supposed to be little but a triumphant return home against the last-place team in the ACC after a three-game road swing that included coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 1,000th win and a win at No. 2 Virginia.
Tech had other ideas, at least for the first 33 minutes, before running out of them late in a 72-66 loss. A flurry of defensive lapses with six minutes to go and a couple of sloppy passes in the final minute cost the Jackets the chance for the upset.
“Proud of our guys in terms of their fight and the intensity that they played with,” said Tech coach Brian Gregory, now 0-6 against Duke. “I remember three years ago when we came here, my second year here, we had a bunch of guys taking pictures, stuff like that, of the arena. Our guys today came in here and fought. And there’s a big difference there. I think it bodes well for what we’re doing.”
Duke (19-3, 6-3) escaped with its eighth consecutive win in the series and the 15th in 16 games against Tech at Cameron. Duke celebrated Krzyzewski’s 1,000th win milestone with a postgame ceremony, and they could also honor him for passing Dean Smith for the all-time lead in ACC wins. Win No. 423 came Wednesday against Tech.
Cox kept Okafor to 14 points on a season-low 5-of-12 shooting, but Duke’s Justise Winslow picked up his slack. He poured in 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked the Jackets’ final shot, earning a salute — literally — from teammate Quinn Cook. Cook led all scorers with 17 points, all of which came in the second half.
Chris Bolden paced Tech with 16 points, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range. Marcus Georges-Hunt added 14 points and nine rebounds. But it was errant passes like the outlet one he had stolen by Matt Jones with 33 seconds left that had Tech no closer than four points down the stretch.
The Jackets (10-12, 1-9) still have only one ACC win to show for their efforts. Outside of the 29-point loss to Virginia, the average deficit in their other eight losses is four points.
“It hurts to go back in the locker room and know you’re this close,” Georges-Hunt said. “We’ve got the win over Miami, but we could really compete with a lot of teams in this league. Our record doesn’t show it, but knowing in your head, you’re just as good maybe even better than a team in this league is a good thing, to be able to compete.”
The Jackets know all too well how narrow the margin for victory is, and they saw it again with seven minutes to play and down 57-56. Cook blew by his defenders on drives on consecutive trips down the floor. Georges-Hunt had his own drive stopped short with a chest full of Okafor and no foul call, which left Gregory with his hand over his face in dismay.
One bad decision on a cross-court pass by Travis Jorgenson had Duke back up by seven and Gregory calling timeout.
“We’ve played pretty darn good,” Gregory said. “We’re not perfect. We’ve played 10 games in the league. We’ve had one bad effort and that was just the second half at Virginia, and they can do that to you. We probably deserve a few more wins, and we haven’t got them. That’s what this league is all about right now. To our guys’ credit, they pick themselves up and get back to work and go back at it again.”
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